In 2012, the latest data that’s now available, U.S. multinationals earned $24.9 billion on revenue of $332 billion in mainland China. (Hong Kong is reported separately.) In a very crude calculation of margin — interest, tax, depreciation and the like are all included here, as opposed to most Wall Street calculations that exclude them — margins were just 7% on the mainland, compared with 17% globally.

But sales growth for U.S.-based multinationals was just 1% overall, compared with 11% in China.

What to draw from this? China is obviously still a play for the long term for U.S. companies, and despite concerns over the country’s economy, it’s growing far more rapidly than most of the world.

Elsewhere, Latin America looks like a more profitable area to operate in than it really is, since the data includes U.S. assets in the Caymans and Bermuda, that basically represent hedge funds and other financial assets.